Add SBI Canada to GIC Comparison Chart | Site suggestions | Discussion forum

Just curious why Laurentian Bank is being listed but there are no comments? If no one uses this financial institution then delete it and list a FI that members do business with.
As for Tangerine they do not have a GIC at 5% for 9 months anymore. It is now at 4.8%.

I have experience in dealing with them. For me, they are very troublesome. For the longest time, I even considered the possibility that they were a scam. I had troubles opening an account with them and received little help in the process. I had to vigourously pursuit them to get simple things like joint account status. My GIC matures in July and I hope to get the funds back. I still am not 100% certain they aren't a scam! I am in Alberta and would feel better if I could actually walk into a branch. Has anyone in BC or Ont walked into their branches?

I tried to link a USD account to their USD account but was told that the only way to push funds into the SBI USD account was via wire transfer. To their credit, they promised to reimburse transfer fees (in or out), but I had to chase them. I did not try to see if funds could be deposited via app and cheque image.

I considered investing in a SBI GIC when they were offering 6% for USD, but after several communications via phone and email, it became clear that I would have to go to their physical location in South Vancouver (a 30 minute bus ride from downtown) to transact business effectively. As best as I could estimate, I would need three hours to open my GIC, and eventually a couple of hours to redeem the funds, all through in person visits to a bank location that is in a part of Vancouver I never visit otherwise. To me, that was not worth the interest spread (75 basis points compared to an online investment savings account with Q Trade).

BTC said

Peter said
Does anybody have experience dealing with them?
 

Yes, I have purchased 14 non-redeemable GICs (both CAD and USD, individual and joint) with them so far and all have been done via their mobile App YONO. Funds returned to their deposit accounts promptly on maturity.

For their CAD savings account (2 free debits), I keep >=200 CAD to waive the monthly administration fees of 10 CAD. You can pull from a linked account and push to any external account for a fee of 1.50 per transition. To avoid the fees, you can pull at an external bank instead. Interec e-Transfer is free of charge.

For their USD chequing account (unlimited debits), one needs to keep >=1000 USD to waive the monthly administration fees of 4 USD. I only push/pull funds from other banks as there is currently no way to link USD account.

Their customer service email can solve some of the issues you may have at the back office level. I also keep my branch's associate manager and manager's email, mobile and landline numbers. They can help solve almost all of the remaining issues I have had at the branch level. That is to say, I have never stepped into my own branch once.

I once reported a problem in their mobile App. Their IT department fixed it

Since I do not use them as a daily driver, they have served me well for my needs just to invest GICs at a competitive rate.

Lately, I have had some experience on ICICI Bank Canada as their non-redeemable USD GIC rate is higher than SBI Canada's. If anyone is interested, a separate thread on that topic can be created. I am more than happy to share my experience.  

yes, please

Thanks so much for the heads up Herman... I'm definitely not going to risk them for a .05% premium.

BTC said
Did you confirm from the YONO App that the maturity instruction was set to what you wished? If so, from my experience, the GIC will be auto-renewed on the maturity day regardless the correct (no-renewal) instructions and the new GIC will be cancelled after one business day. The funds will be back to the chequing/savings account with probably some extra interest depending on whether the extra business day is after a weekend/public holidays.  

I used the YONO app to purchase the GICs and am pretty certain that they were set appropriately. I have since deleted the app and there is no other way to confirm the original purchase settings.

The good news is that the auto-re-newed GICs have since been cancelled and the funds are now residing in my chequing account. Since they pay 0% interest to their chequing accounts, I didn't "lose" anything. 🙂

Now, to see how long it takes them to actually initiate the wire transfer. The Asst. Mgr told me to send him a message via the Service Requests function of their portal. I tried and the portal kicks me out every time I hit the Submit button. What a wonderful piece of sh*t. Of course, I had already to them of this bug, earlier in the year, but I guess they can't be bothered to fix anything on their end. I told him about their bug, again.

It just begs the question. If any FI can't get simple straight-forward functions like internal messaging to work, how the hell can anyone trust them to actually properly safeguard money with complicated mechanisms like encryption technology?!

BTC said

HermanH said
Now, to see how long it takes them to actually initiate the wire transfer.

Although they agreed to reimburse transfer fees, would you mind sharing which receiving bank will also waive the incoming wire transfer fee?

The receiving bank is supposed to be CitiBank, in the US, and I have been told that they do not charge for inbound wire transfers. So, the only potential fees are from SBI.

BTC said
I have linked their USD account to Tangerine and EQ to avoid their online portal which is way behind modern standard.  

Are you sure that you are linked? I also tried to link both Tang and EQ to SBI and found out that SBI does not accept the links. No test deposits arrived. That is when I was told by SBI that only wire transfers were allowed. You might want to double-check. If you managed to establish a link, then GREAT for you! I only wish that I had been able to do the same.